College culture, as well as the public, depicts college athletes as celebrities as they attend classes on campus grounds. Fellow students and administrators stop athletes on their way into class to share a friendly conversation. Sometimes, athletes are even photographed from a distance by aw-struck classmates who envy and idolize their athletic abilities and partake in college sports. Although many praise the athletes for their efforts on the field and winning championships titles to the universities, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, otherwise known as NCAA, establish laws that do not allow college athletes to receive payment for being a part of a college sports team and the efforts on the field, court or rink. Institutions in the NCAA bring in multi millions of dollars in revenue to the university each year, whose efforts go directly into the athletic departments funds. These funds feed into the million dollar salaries college coaches are paid as well as the payment of athletic directors, administrators and many more employees of the athletic department; not to mention the many other miscellaneous items the athletic department wants but does not need, like new warm up gear and shirts for the athletic administration board and athletes. The funds paid out to what seems like random outlets need to be reworked into a budget to provide remuneration to these athletes who give everything they have to these sports teams and in return get nothing. The amount of time and dedication these student athletes devote to their teams as well as the toll college sports takes on their bodies should be rewarded in ways other than cool headphones and swag bags. These hard working students should receive compensation for the time they must take away from studies to focus on the upcoming rivalry game or match. These student athletes are college level professionals in their fields as far as the situation concerns and should be treated as such.

Many forget that college athletes are also students. Founder of the National College Players Association, Ramogi Huma found that these student athletes spend "forty hours a week of labor in their sport alone" and multiple times a day training and practicing for their approaching game or match (Huma). Imagine spending possibly more than forty hours a week putting a body through strenuous activity all while attending class and coming home to study for a huge exam in two days. The ability to focus on studies while being a part of a college sports team is seemingly near impossible. Colleges depict college athletes as students who do not care about their studies and are just there to use the university as a stepping stool to get to the NBA, NFL or other professional athletic leagues. While a portion of student athlete's play at the college level to get noticed by professional leagues, studies conducted by the American Institute of Research have shown that "about three quarters of student athletes  --  do not expect to become professional athletes" (Study Takes Measure of College Athletes, Bower). A great amount of student athletes use their athletic abilities to get to college, earn a degree, and have a career in a field they could never be in without collegiate academic experience. These particular athletes are in financial situation where they may not have been able to afford college without college sports providing a portion if not near all the funds to pay tuition to attend these institutions. Huma recalls the NCAA's argument that "college athletes are paid with free education" being a gracious offer from coaches to lure athletes to be a part of their teams, this offer does not give enough to the athletes to get qualifying grades in class to graduate and perform well on the field (Huma). These students who desire to have a career outside of sports are worn out preventing them from giving their best efforts in the classroom and on the field where "a coach can revoke a scholarship if he or she is not performing well on the field" (Zimbalist). The possible revoking of scholarships and many other possibilities that result in the reduction of tuition funding along with the dedication to the sports teams are why these athletes deserve to receive monetary compensation to have financial stability without dependency on direct athletic department funding for education, while the athletic department depends on the athletes for their skill.

The NCAA as well as many other associations denies their exploitation of college athletes for their popularity and athletic abilities. The NCAA bylaws state, "The student-athlete shall not make any endorsement, expressed or implied, of any commercial product or service" Economic professors Sanderson and Siegfried recall this very law as they argue that college athletes may be unlikely to receive a consecutive payment to live off of but should at least be able to live off the revenue their name brings to the institutes they represent (Sanderson Siegfried). College athletes are clearly exploited somewhat for their athletic abilities and popularity to the university and athletic departments benefit. Televised interviews, advertisements, likeness in videogames, and other consumer products use college athletes to help popularize the college sports teams they represent. Athletes spend a decent amount of time making appearances and signing autographs to stimulate talk about their team; which generates hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars solely off of the revenue made from selling shirts, hats, and many other products with athlete's names and numbers on them. It is unconstitutional to prohibit college athletes to benefit from the revenue made by using their name or likeness. No other American is restricted from receiving incentives for their popularity and talents. Ken Reed sports issue analyst points out, "actors and musicians can go off to college, be of scholarship, and still make money off their talent" (Reed). There is no reason for college athletes to be restricted to these guidelines when they own their name and talents, other than the fact that the NCAA and athletic departments are greedy and wish to reap all income these athletic heroes' breed. This rule was made knowing that allowing college athletes to receive money for likeness sales and endorsements would take away from the money the NCAA believe they need to keep the organization alive which Dave Zirin, writer on the politics of sports, realizes, "if the rule weren't there, they would" receive payment from sales revenue (Zirin). Former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon is suing the governing body of collegiate athletics for claiming to own his likeness, which the NCAA use later in a video game, after signing a legal release at seventeen years old. The same seventeen year old that brought UCLA to the national championships just wanting to play ball not knowing his name would live on in the college basketball world and would get nothing for it in return. O'Bannon realizes now "for lack of a better term, you are signing your life away" he is fighting to get his life back and receive compensation for his likeness being used in videogames and receiving not one dime of the hefty amount of money the videogame brings in (D'Alessandro). O'Bannon, who lives a modest life working as a car salesman on the Las Vegas strip could be living "comfortably" if the seventeen year old O'Bannon was not forced to sign his name and likeness over to the NCAA. The NCAA consider student athletes as amateurs and are treated as such, which should be rehabilitated.

The time and dedication student athletes give to their sports teams drain their day-to-day schedules of time to relax, have a social life, study, and especially not enough time to get a job. Law professors at MSU Robert and Amy McCormick discuss college athletes (McCormick McCormick). The amateurism clause states, "They must provide their valuable labor to their universities without personal profit" which classifies these athletes as "student-athletes" who are forbidden employment during the season and during off-season of their sport and are not considered employees of the athletic department or university (McCormick McCormick).  Student athlete's classification keeps the NCAA from being obligated to pay student athletes a wage, workers compensation if injured and other rights employees are granted. Sports journalist Kate Murphy reveals Walter Byers, first executive director of the NCAA who admits, "that he invented the "student-athlete" label so that they could not be paid as employees" including the guaranteed workman's comp if injured which is a high possibility in sports (Murphy). Along with branding student athletes as amateurs, the NCAA amateurism clause establishes the consideration to play for professional sports leagues a certain amount of years must have elapsed and sometimes a certain age must be reached to be drafted. There is another option to play in foreign countries and receive payment but cannot play in the NFL, NBA and other associations. The students that dream to one day be a professional athlete are subject to long weeks of strenuous training without monetary compensation for years before even being considered by professional associations. The ridiculous amount of time spent practicing and training adds up to exceed the amount of time someone considered an employee works, leaving no extra time to get a job that pays actual money, college athletics becomes a job. These athletes deserve to receive benefits parallel to what employees are granted. College athletes have trained all their lives for the moment to be considered by college level teams and possibly professionally. By the time they get to the college level their bodies are subject to breaks and tares; one may think student athletes would at least receive compensation if they get injured. Contrary to popular belief, in most instances athletes get scholarships revoked and even dropped from the team if the injury keeps them from playing in games. The NCAA has become one of the largest unpaid labor forces. College athletes put in hours as if they are already playing for professional leagues and they should be paid like professional athletes are paid for their hard work as anyone else that works hard is paid. The public recognizes most student athletes for their hard work and athletic abilities that bring a lot of money to the university, student athletes act as spokes people for the university. With the amount of revenue these athletes bring to the school they should be considered employees of the university and deserve their share. 

There are many doubts to the idea of paying college athletes where many have a valid point but none are points without a solution. To start the most popular argument of where is there enough money to pay athletes for their commitment to the team. The NCAA is a billion dollar association that has funding from broadcast companies, sponsors, product sales, ticket sales and the list goes on and on. Award winning columnist Nick Gillespie states, "There's so much money up for grabs that individual schools and conferences have created their own sports TV channels" which alone make a couple million of dollars for university athletic departments (Gillespie).  A majority of the revenue made for the athletic department from the college sports teams go directly back into the administrators and staff bank accounts, which have been quoted making a minimum of six figures. Gillespie recalls "Football and basketball coaches too numerous to count make well into seven figures- including many still getting paid millions after they've been fired" while these eighteen to twenty three year old students work extremely hard everyday and receive no money in their personal bank accounts (Gillespie). Not to mention the state of the art athletic facilities dressed with top of the line equipment, all great perks to being a part of the team but unnecessary when there are students struggling to buy a jersey with their name on it for their parents. A simple move by the NCAA and athletic departments would be to rebuild the budget for administrator salaries and athletic facilities and fit an allowance into the budget to pay student athletes a stipend for their efforts on the team that earn the NCAA and university millions each year, Rick Burton sports management professor says himself "[t]hey're just not paid what the market is capable of bearing" (Burton). The second most questioned point is that how will payment be divided between different sports and gender of sports. Yes, it is true some sports, being mostly male, bring in a lot more money for the university than others, but in the real world salaries work the same way. Journalist, Kieran McCauley testifies on the consideration of paying all student athletes the same wage "seems strange and borderline unfair" (McCauley). The argument is that college sports bring in millions of dollars yearly to the university while their athletes do not receive a share of it. Therefore, sports that bring in the most money for the university deserve to be paid and paid more than lower revenue sports. As far as gender goes this is a touchy subject since statistics show people watch men play over women. McCauley reports, " 28.3 million viewers watched the 2015 NCAA Men's Division I National Championship " while "3.1 viewers for the 2015 NCAA Women's Division I National Championship" (McCauley). Although more revenue comes from male gender sports the sport in general is what is popular leaving the budget for student athlete payment to be divided by revenue of sport.

College athletes, whose peers and administrators praise their presence around campus, and the public viewers celebrate these college athletes incredible athletic talents, are some of the hardest working students with a boundless deal of dedication with the time and effort they put into their sport and studies. These same college athletes do not receive a near worthy reward for the assets they bring to the institutions they attend or the NCAA. Although, student athletes contribute a great amount of revenue for the universities and athletic departments while leading thousands of people to know the name of these schools, the NCAA limit the reward these devoted students deserve, leading them to be one of the largest unpaid labor forces. These so-called "amateur" college athletes work hours longer than a full time employee and receive no monetary payment for their work. There are many outlets that allow a distribution of payment to college athletes to compensate for the amount of work they put into the sports teams. Solely lifting the law created by the NCAA, that prohibits college athletes from receiving endorsements from outside sources, student athletes could receive hundreds if not thousands of dollars from sources that do not involve or take money away from the NCAA and athletic departments; who are greedily afraid to loose any money. In addition, the NCAA should allow college athletes to be employed during their off season so they can buy off campus food and clothe themselves. These are simple solutions to a controversial phenomenon in our culture today. College athletes struggle to survive without relying on the athletic department who has complete control over their personal, athletic, and academic lives. Many may argue that their college tuition is more than a gracious payment for the athletes work or that there is just not enough money to provide a salary to college athletes. Throughout these athletes' lives and college experiences playing sports, tuition is not enough to cover the troubles student athletes go through. These students deserve someone to care for them and provide them what they really want and need, not just reap from their talent.

